Cole, 36, also known as Andrew David Robertson, starved himself to drop his weight by about a fifth in a matter of weeks. He entered jail a 70 kilogram prisoner and left a 56 kilogram escapee.

Prison authorities seem not to have noticed that Cole had been starving himself. Nor did they see he had been chipping away at the brickwork outside his cell window to make enough room to squeeze between the edge of the window and its external bars.